Google addiction recovery website launched

Google has launched a new corporate social responsibility initiative – it will help addicts recover. The company has launched an online support group that will help people with addiction recovery, support and other issues.

The "Recover Together" website is focussed more on opioids and will provide addicts with links to pharmacies that sell opioid overdose reversal drug, Naloxone.

The website, which has been launched to celebrate the National Recovery Month in the US, will provide addicts tools to help them recover.

"There are many ways that people find and thrive in recovery. One method that may work for some, may not work as well for others; and these can evolve during their recovery journey," the website states.

One of the tools it has provided is the Recovery Maps Locator, which it has developed in collaboration with the Recovery Resource hub. It provides addiction-related information free, online.

It will show more than 33,000 locations of support service centres for addicts. These will also include school-based support and family support services. It will also show 80,000 support meetings such as Al-Anon and SmartRecovery.

Addicts will be able to locate 20,000 pharmacies supplying Nalaxone including large chains such as Walgreens. The map will be regularly updated and new centres will be added. Users can also report if something is missing or incorrect in the Transforming Youth Recovery section. The company promises that it will be readily reviewed.

The company has also provided links to a Facebook group - the Voices Project for further assistance.

This is the latest in a series of steps the company has taken to battle the opioid crisis. Google's parent company Alphabet's health data division Verily previously opened an opioid treatment centre in Ohio state. It has also partnered with the US Drug Enforcement Agency and shared medical disposal site information.

The easy and specialised access that the website provides, is certainly more than what a simple web search for "rehab" would reveal.

The website will also have videos of recovering addicts, who will explain how they got into and out of addiction, including one of its own employees, who is mentioned only by the name Shawna.